Longing
by DannyRoranicus44
Summary: 'She longed to see Grace one last time, to have a final picnic with her.' Amy is having trouble coping with the news of Grace's death. She wishes to see Grace one last time. So why, when she stumbles across a time machine, would she resist the urge to use it? For KatnissCahill's Time Machine contest.


**So this is my first 39 Clues fanfic and one-shot. **

**And when I say football later in the fic I mean a soccer ball. I'm sorry if Amy and Dan are OOC. I've only just started the fourth book so don't know them **_**that**_** well.**

**Good luck to anyone else entering!**

**Summary: 'She longed to see Grace one last time, to have a final picnic with her.' Amy is having trouble coping with the news of Grace's death. She wishes to see Grace one last time. So why, when she stumbles across a time machine, would she resist the urge to use it? For KatnissCahill's Time Machine contest.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own The 39 Clues series.**

Amy Cahill, dressed completely in black, dragged her feet along the side of a creek. Behind her, in the distance, a mansion could be made out, sat proudly at the top of a hill. At the foot of the hill, more people could be seen, gathered together. Most were also black but a few figures stood out, wearing bright purple.

Amy, however, ignored the people behind her. She had just been with them and was grateful to have slipped away from the four hundred or so people who had also gathered for Grace Cahill's (Amy's grandmother's) funeral. They had just buried her in the family graveyard and had been given ten minutes before the will was to be read out. Amy had decided she needed some time to herself.

The past two days, since she and her brother, Dan, had received the news of Grace's death had been a blur for Amy. As she watched the water in the creek calmly flowing, she began to realise that the news still hadn't fully sank in. She longed to see Grace one last time, to have a final picnic with her while Dan explored the woods. Grace was gone, however, and both Amy and Dan had lost another close relative. There would be no more weekend trips to the mansion and instead they'd be stuck in their dull apartment with a new au pair after Aunt Beatrice fires their current one, Nellie.

As she continued along the creek, Amy heard a rustling behind her. She spun round to find herself facing a younger boy, around six inches shorter than herself with dirty blonde hair and the same coloured eyes that she had. "Dan," she exclaimed in relief. "Did you really have to sneak up on me?"

"I wasn't sneaking," Dan shrugged with his hands firmly in the pockets of his black trousers. "I was walking behind you the whole time." Amy simply raised an eyebrow, she highly doubted Dan's reply, she was sure she would have heard him even if she had been deep in thought. Then she noticed his clothes, his suit torn and dirty, his white shirt was browner from dust and mud than white like it had been when they had first arrived.

She narrowed her eyes and folded her arms, "What have you been up to Dan?" She asked with a sigh.

"I've just been following you," Dan repeated again.

"And that's made your shirt dirty," Amy smiled, indicating Dan's shirt. Dan looked down at his shirt in surprise and Amy knew he hadn't realised how mucky he had got after doing whatever-it-was he had been up to. Dan just shrugged as Amy caught something out of the corner of her eye, something shinning just across the creek from her. "What's that?" She asked, with a frown whilst she was still facing Dan.

"Dirt, you were right," Dan admitted as he looked back up at Amy. It was clear that he hadn't yet seen the mystery object across the creek and there was no way Amy was going to let him find out first. She ran to the edge of the creek and scrambled across, using the rocks which had fallen in previous to stop her from touching the water and getting her shoes wet. The thought of falling in and wrecking her clothes didn't cross her mind as she crossed and she ignored Dan's exclaims of shock from the other side. She was curious. Nothing could stop her from finding out what this silver object was. As she pushed the leaves away that were covering the object, Amy suddenly felt a wave of nerves. It looked as if someone had purposely attempted to hide the object. Maybe they had done that for a reason. Maybe it was dangerous.

As she crouched down to have a better look at the item, she made sure not to touch it after deciding that it was better to be safe than sorry. Dan then joined her and peered over her shoulder. Amy turned round to smile at him but noticed he didn't look particularly happy. She didn't have time to worry about that though. She needed to find out what the newfound object was and make sure it wasn't a bomb or something that could injure someone. She shook her head quickly. Worrying about bombs wasn't going to help her. "What do you think it is?" She asked Dan, attempting to cheer him up while she tried to figure out what the object was. Her thoughts of Grace had now been replaced with thoughts of a detective, leading a case on a mystery object found by the side of a creek.

"I don't know," Dan shrugged, answering Amy quite quickly. Amy took no notice of how quickly he responded and was instead staring at a number pad on the side of the silver object (which looked a lot like a football). Feeling less nervous, Amy reached her hand out towards the number pad. Something was drawing her in. "Don't!" Dan exclaimed, pulling her back. "It could be dangerous," Dan explained himself when he saw Amy's face.

"Tell me the truth Dan," Amy sighed, fed up with all the quick replies she was getting from him. "You've been acting weirdly since I found this."

"It's a time machine," Dan admitted bluntly. Amy stared at him. Did he really think she was going to believe this? She looked over at the silver object and her eyes widened. If Dan was telling the truth and it really was a time machine, she could see Grace again. She could take the object back to the apartment and she and Dan would be able to visit Grace not just every weekend but every day. She didn't care anymore if Dan was just saying all this to make her look stupid. She had a slim chance of being able to see Grace again and, if she could she needed to know:

"How?" She questioned, turning back to face Dan, her heart thumping. She needed to see Grace again. She was so close to seeing her again and if Dan was teasing her she had no idea what she would do next. She was expecting him to laugh at her for believing him but instead her hopes rose when he walked over to the silver object. She couldn't believe this was happening. It was only five minutes ago that she was thinking about seeing Grace again and now it seemed like she would. Dan was pointing at the number pad and Amy quickly turned her attention to him, having missed his first sentence.

"Type the year you want to go to in here," Dan told her, stepping back to let her move towards the number pad. Amy didn't move.

"How did you find it?" She asked suspiciously.

"I needed to get away from the Cobras," Dan explained. "They were annoying me so I came down here and found it. I messed about with it for a bit before realising what it does."

"You used it?" Amy exclaimed.

"Yes, and now it's your turn," Dan replied, glancing at his watch. "Hurry up. We don't have much time."

"You're not coming with me?" Amy asked as she typed the year in, making sure it was recent enough that she would be around the age of fourteen but also checking to make sure Grace wouldn't be ill. She wasn't confident she had calculated the correct date but she'd find out soon enough. She couldn't help grinning madly at the thought of going on another picnic with Grace. She missed the talks they had. Grace had always had good advice for any issue Amy could bring up and she missed that advice. She didn't risk asking Beatrice for advice as Amy knew Beatrice was nothing like Grace and Nellie definitely couldn't help. The only person who Amy liked receiving advice from was Grace and that was exactly where they were heading.

"No," Dan laughed. "I've had enough of time travelling for today!" Amy was secretly grateful. If Dan had gone with her then Dan wouldn't have gone off into the woods to explore like usual and would stay with both Amy and Grace meaning that Grace would get suspicious and Amy wouldn't be able to have her normal chat with Grace as she definitely did not want Dan finding out about some of the things they speak about.

"See you later then," Amy spluttered out as her image became fuzzy, the green leaves from the trees mixing in with Dan's dirty blonde hair. Quickly, she shut her eyes, finding the blur was giving her a headache but something was happening and Amy couldn't help but grin madly.

"Amy? Is that you?" Amy's eyes snapped open when she heard that recognisable, curious voice. Grace. She was there. Grace was there. Right in front of her, unaware of the path that lay ahead of her. Amy struggled to stop herself from crying, to stop herself from blurting out that Grace was going to die soon. Instead she put on a weak smile.

"Yeah," Amy nodded, her voice wavering slightly but covered it up with a big smile of relief. Dan hadn't been winding her up. He had been right and now she was with Grace while everyone else was at her funeral. That's when she started to have doubts. Maybe she had fallen unconscious at the funeral (from all the stress) and was lay there still, at Grace's grave side. Could this all just be a nasty dream her brain had come up with? She just couldn't believe this was all happening. It had been all so perfect timing. She had just been wishing about seeing Grace again just before she had stumbled across the time machine, which she had now tightened her grip on. Everything was going too fast for her and she didn't like it. She felt guilty and confused. Up until she had arrived she had been looking forward to seeing Grace and now it all felt like a dream. Even if it was a dream, everything seemed realistic. She was going to go along with it. The event could be real, for all she knew.

"It's Wednesday," Grace replied, helping Amy to her feet. "You should be at school." Amy's jaw dropped slightly but she quickly snapped her mouth shut. Dan hadn't told her she needed to set a day. She glanced back at the time machine. Could you set a day? Now she had to come up with an excuse and she wasn't the best at lying.

"I was ill," Amy said, trying her best at lying. "Aunt Beatrice dropped me off but I'm feeling better now." She hesitated before adding six words she hadn't been able to ask in a while. "Can we have a picnic please?" Amy watched Grace closely, not sure if she was narrowing her eyes and had seen through Amy's lies however Grace didn't say anything on the subject, which Amy was grateful about.

"Of course we can," Grace agreed and Amy smiled in relief when she noticed Grace was smiling. As Amy began to follow Grace back to the Cahill mansion, her doubts about the situation she found herself in were beginning to fade. They walked in silence for most of the journey as Amy was saving the questions she had for Grace for the picnic and had nothing else she wanted to talk about.

(Time skip)

Amy lay on the grass, staring up at the blue sky, grateful that the time machine had taken her to a time with nice weather. She knew she wouldn't have enjoyed the trip as much if it had been raining. Grace would have said no to the outdoor picnic which would have ruined Amy's plan for the day.

Amy opened her mouth, about to ask Grace the question she had needed an answer from for the past two days but quickly shut her mouth again. She couldn't do it. What if Grace worked out why she was asking the question and who the question really referred to? She remembered Dan telling her about paradoxes a couple of weeks ago. Surely she could risk it though. She needed an answer.

After five minutes sat and eating in silence, Amy had finally built up her confidence. "Grace? How do you cope if you suddenly lose someone?"

"Why are you asking me that?" Grace asked and Amy sighed, she hadn't thought about Grace questioning her, even though she had asked a question she typically wouldn't have asked.

"It's inevitable that it will happen one day," Amy replied, surprised that she had come up with a lie so quickly. She wondered if she had subconsciously planned a response in case of Grace's reply. "I want to be ready for it."

"There's no way to cope with it Amy," Grace replied, not saying anything about Amy's lie and as she watched Grace's facial expression, Amy was worried that Grace had worked it out. "Losing someone hurts, especially when it's unexpected. You'll find yourself thinking about that person, wishing you could go back and change what happened," Grace hesitated here and looked at Amy carefully. Amy noticed how much everything Grace was saying was true but then her brain registered Grace's last sentence. Amy's eyes widened. Grace was warning her. Grace knew. Amy couldn't say anything else; the pain had flooded back to her. She scrambled to her feet.

"I better go," she muttered before running. Ignoring Grace's shouts, Amy didn't stop running. She leapt across the creek and pushed through the pushes, sighing in relief when she reached the time machine. She couldn't face Grace. Not after Amy had practically told her she was going to die. What had she been thinking? She should never have crossed back on her own time zone in the first place.

Amy hit the familiar numbers of her own time into the number pad as quickly as she could with shaking hands. As her vision began to blur, she took one last glance at Grace (who had followed her back to the time machine), tears forming in her eyes. This had definitely not gone to plan.


End file.
